1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a straddle-type vehicle that includes a power unit, and more particularly to a footrest that is attached to a bottom face of the power unit and extends along a vehicle width direction.
2. Description of Related Art
A straddle-type vehicle such as an underbone motorcycle often includes a footrest attached to an engine that is disposed below a down tube. Generally, the footrest is a bar-shaped member that is disposed along a vehicle width direction. The footrest is typically fixed to the engine, more specifically, the crank case, from the bottom side of the motorcycle using a fixing plate.
In a motorcycle with such a footrest attachment structure, an under-guard may be attached to cover a lower portion of the engine to the fixing plate of the footrest in an overlapping manner from the bottom side of the motorcycle (see, for example, JP-A-3529526, pages 2-3, FIGS. 2 and 3.) When driving over a bump that may touch the lower part of the engine, the under-guard and fixing plate slide over the protrusion and prevent the footrest from catching on the bump.
However, this footrest attachment structure has a problem in that, since the footrest is attached to the crank case from the bottom side of the motorcycle, minimum ground clearance may not be sufficiently secured.
If a seat position is lowered to improve the ease with which a rider can reach his/her feet to the ground, the mounting position of the engine is also lowered. Therefore, the minimum ground clearance becomes even smaller due to the footrest being attached to the crank case from the bottom side of the motorcycle.
The minimum ground clearance may be increased by reducing the thickness of the bar-shaped member used for the footrest. However, this creates another problem in that the rigidity of the footrest is reduced.